Stanick enjoys rookie season, looking for more

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This article was published 02/04/2020 (2225 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sloan Stanick went into camp intent on making an impression on the Regina Pats.

It apparently worked.

The five-foot-11, 162-pound forward from Rapid City made the team and enjoyed a fine Western Hockey League season as a 16-year-old rookie.

“I knew that I had a big summer of developing and getting bigger and stronger,” Stanick said. “I just wanted to go into camp knowing what my abilities were and showing them and proving to the organization why they traded for me.”

Stanick was actually selected in the seventh round of the 2018 bantam draft by the Everett Silvertips, but acquired by Regina, along with a pair of draft picks, for forward Robbie Holmes on Jan. 10, 2019.

Like all rookies, Stanick had to adapt to the size, speed, strength and skill of WHL players.

“There are lots of big, strong guys out there,” Stanick said. “They also have a lot of skill and can make good plays. Their hockey IQs are really high so they play a faster paced game.”

If scoring your first WHL goal helps you fit in, Stanick adapted quickly. On Sept. 21, 2019 in a 5-3 loss to the host Moose Jaw Warriors, Stanick put Regina on the board in the third period of just his second WHL contest.

“That’s definitely an exciting moment,” Stanick said. “Garrett Wright is a skilled offensive player and he was able to take the puck behind the net and threw it out front. I kind of snuck back door and was lucky enough that the puck came to me and I put it in the net. My family was there to watch, so that made it even more special. It was a surreal feeling for sure.”

Another big milestone came on Nov. 23 in a 5-4 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Stanick played his first WHL game at Westoba Place, and admitted it wasn’t just another night at the office.

“Just going on the ice for warmup knowing that all of my friends and family were coming out to support me was just crazy,” Stanick said. “It felt pretty amazing for sure. Playing in front of such a good crowd and knowing my buddies were there and all of family and to be able to see them after was definitely an amazing feeling for sure. It was definitely a game I’ll never forget.”

In 49 games this season, he had two goals, two assists and nine penalty minutes.

Moving away from home at 16 can’t be easy, and Stanick admitted that was a transition as well. But he said it went pretty smoothly.

“I moved into a great billet house with a great billet brother (Pats forward) Logan Nijhoff,” Stanick said. “I had (an academic advisor) who really helped me and I had a couple of other buddies in school too. Being able to make sure my time management was right was huge for me. It was a little bit of an adjustment at first and now going into next year, it will still be another year of school but it will definitely be a lot better transition and a smooth transition for sure.”

He said he was fortunate to play in the Yellowhead Chiefs program before he joined the Pats, because the team equipped him to move on. He’s grateful to his former coaches.

“Yellowhead develops a lot of hockey players,” Stanick said. “Mark Wotton and Craig Geekie were great coaches for me in my second year of bantam. They really developed me and gave me lots of ice time. My midget year was obviously a huge year as well. They taught me so much.

“Systems in Yellowhead are big as well, and they really combined with the western league, which made it much easier for sure.”

Moving up a league did entail a dramatic change in his role. Stanick went from being a front-line player with Yellowhead to accepting a more reduced role in the WHL.

He was accepting of his new reality.

“It’s just knowing that you’re one of the younger guys and the older guys have earned their spots higher up,” Stanick said. “You want to prove yourself every day in practice by going in with a good mindset every time you go out there, doing your best and being ready to go whenever your name is called. That’s definitely the biggest thing for sure but it wasn’t bad at all. I got quite a bit of ice time for a young guy on a bit of a younger team for sure. I think this year was a very big year for my development.”

Unfortunately, Stanick suffered an upper-body injury in February that kept him out of the lineup for three weeks. That was tough because he liked how his team was playing prior to the season ending prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic season cancellation.

“After Christmas we had a really good push and we really felt together,” Stanick said. “Near the end we started to have a good push right before the cutoff. It would have been really good to get the last five games so that I would be even more confident going into next year. Next year is going to be a really big year for us for sure.”

Stanick has a long off-season ahead of him but he hopes to use every minute of it. He plans to be ready for next season, and a bigger force for his team.

“I’m going to be working out a lot, getting bigger, stronger, faster so that I’ll be able to play a bigger role next year, which will be crucial for our team’s success,” Stanick said. “Hopefully I can be a leader to the younger guys who are just coming up and show them the ropes, and just be ready to go right from the start and know I’ll have a bigger role and play a bigger part in the team’s success next year.”

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